MARBIDCO: Financing Maryland’s Food and Fiber Future

A Source For Agricultural Business Development Financing Assistance

The Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO) provides Maryland agricultural and rural businesses with the supplemental resources they need to start and grow their enterprises.

  • MARBIDCO is a nimble quasi-governmental organization that is an instrumentality of the State of Maryland, with a mission to serve the State's commercial farming, forestry, and seafood industries.

  • MARBIDCO assists qualifying businesses in securing affordable capital and credit for equipment, commercial facilities, and real estate purchases - often partnering with commercial lenders and state and local economic development and land conservation organizations.

  • MARBIDCO is committed to supporting the sustainability of the state's agricultural, forestry, and seafood businesses, most of which are family-run enterprises, while at the same time helping to ensure the viability of the rural working landscape that Marylanders so greatly cherish. A safe and healthy local food supply, clean air and water, thriving rural communities, and productive pastoral scenic vistas are what we plan to help sustain for future generations.

What MARBIDCO Offers:

  • Low and moderate-cost loan programs for farmers, watermen, as well as aquaculture, seafood processing, and wood processing businesses

  • Partnership arrangements with commercial lenders to help maximize rural lending opportunities

  • Beginning Farmer land access financing leading to productive agricultural land being permanently preserved

  • Targeted specialty incentive grants for local farm food aggregation and certain farm and resource-based businesses

  • MARBIDCO staff can consult with individuals and businesses to determine which programs are the best fit. 

    Video by Cyrus Photography: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-snowfall-in-the-countryside-4847376/

Certified Local Farm and Fish Food Aggregation Grant Fund Programs Closes February 28, 2025

What’s New?

Maryland Value-Added Producer Matching Grant (USDA Option) Now Open!

Maryland Value Added Producer Matching Grant (USDA Option) is designed to encourage participation in USDA's highly competitive Value-Added Producer Grant Program, which offers both planning and working capital components. The USDA VAPG does not award funding for capital equipment purchases.

The USDA Value-Added Producer Grant Program is offered annually. It requires a non-federal financial matching commitment, and each application for MARBIDCO’s Maryland Value-Added Producer Matching Grant (MVAPMG) must include a “verification of matching funds."

To incentivize Maryland farmers to apply and to increase their competitiveness in the application process, the MVAPMG offers a grant of up to 15% of the USDA matching requirement. To be eligible to apply to MARBIDCO for funding, an applicant must also qualify under the USDA VAPG Program, and funds will only be awarded to those who receive the USDA VAPG award.

These federal grant funds can be used for planning (up to $75,000) or working capital expenses (up to $250,000) per USDA regulations. Eligible purposes include feasibility studies or business plans, and working capital for producing and marketing value-added agricultural products.

The USDA VAPG offers two options:

Grant and matching funds can be used for planning activities or for working capital expenses related to producing and marketing a value-added agricultural product. MARBIDCO offers up to $11,250 for Planning Grants and up to $25,000 for Working Capital Grants. The deadline is April 1, 2025.

  1. Examples of planning activities include conducting feasibility studies and developing business plans for processing and marketing the proposed value-added product.

  2. Examples of working capital expenses include:

  • Processing costs

  • Marketing and advertising expenses

  • Some inventory and salary expenses

MARBIDCO offers two levels of grant funding for food aggregation projects.

Small-Scale Farmer Entity Aggregation Project: A grant of between $25,000 and $100,000 is available. Applicants for the small-scale farmer-led aggregation grant must include at least four Certified Local Farm and Certified Chesapeake Invasive Species Providers and applicants must provide at least a 20% match of private funds in the project.

Public Sector Aggregation Project: A grant of between $150,000 and $300,000 is available. Applicants for the larger-scale aggregation grant will be public entities such as county governments, municipalities, community colleges, universities, county school systems, or rural regional councils. The grant is for public projects that plan to be primarily aggregation centers for wholesale and institutional buyers.

One of our objectives is to foster emerging industries and assist new and beginning farmers in their business ventures.

For New Farmers

We have several programs to get you on track to purchase a farm no matter what size. The Next Gen and SANG programs assist you with a downpayment and can help preserve the working farmland in perpetuity. Click the button to learn more about education, training, business resources, and our many grant and loan programs tailored to young and beginning farmers. Call us to discuss your future at 410-267-6807. Let’s get started today!

For most MARBIDCO programs, practical farm and/or business experience is required and may be supplemented by academic or hands-on training experience.

Our loan and grant programs require business plans and borrower financial information to be submitted.

If you have some experience in commercial agriculture, forestry, or seafood, or are working with a mentor, you may qualify for one of our loan or grant programs.

In delivering our financing programs, we work cooperatively with commercial banks, Farm Credit Associations, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), as well as other federal, State, and local government agencies and land grant universities. Please contact us to find out which programs may be right for your business.

“As a young farmer with no collateral or credit history to purchase such a big investment, it is hard to get started in the ag business. MARBIDCO and Horizon Farm Credit have allowed us to establish a future for our family business. Since purchasing our farm, we have been steadily improving our operation.”

– Ryan Rhodes, Poultry Farmer
Queen Anne’s County, MD